Pitchstone Plateau July 30th

The morning drive was spectacular but foggy. It hasn't been cool at night lately so it was thick in many places.
Heidi and I were early so we tootled down to the South Entrance and back up to the Pitchstone Plateau trailhead. Luckily, Steve was there to meet us even though it was more than an hour early. So we dropped the truck off and went to find the other end of our hike. It took some doing because it was supposed to start behind the corrals and we only barely saw the trail markers. So we parked Steve's truck and set out across the swamp to the markers.  We got there and there was a lot of dead fall.  A lot. A Lot. Steve and Heidi quickly made the decision not to go any further because it would be about 6 or 7 miles before we got to the connecting trail that should be better. Then came the dilemma of how to let Robin and Karen know since there is no cell service. We ended up finding a pull out where we waited about 45 minutes  and flagged them down.  We made the decision to head in via Grassy Lake Road which would cut off a big part of our in hike but would probably mean that we would have time to take a side trip (without backpacks!) to a nearby falls.
We made it to the parking lot and ate lunch then headed off. Less than 2 miles later, we were at our campsite. Surprise! That definitely left enough time for a side trip so off we went. After deciding to go slightly NE to see if we could find the falls that way, it was turning into a lot of bushwhacking so we turned around and did the stream crossing. Well, two of them. Sort of an uphill hike to get to Cascade Acres but well worth the 6 miles we ended up hiking total.
Back to 9F2 which was hideous.  Late July and it was wet so the mosquitoes were out in force. There was a cloud that followed anyone outside a tent. Even duplicate rounds of Off barely kept them away. I went to bed early but didn't end up sleeping well. Kept waking up for no reason.